There is always a concern over the presence of particulate contaminates, especially viable particulate contaminates, in a respirable gaseous medium such as air. The need for constant atmospheric and surface surveillance is apparent in connection with the manufacturing and packaging of medicines, pharmaceutical and the like, food processing plants, in hospitals and other institutions where the aged and/or infirm are present, and in situations where strict hygienic conditions are to be maintained. The detection of airborne micro-organisms as part of this surveillance is often of decisive significance in human and veterinary medicine as well as in the pharmaceutical and food industries. Conventional devices are available for testing air and surfaces such as carpets, hard floors, ceiling tiles, desks, sinks and other areas where micro-organisms are found. They function in accordance with various principles, are operated in accordance with different methods, and yield differing results, both qualitatively and quantitatively.
Carpets, furniture and air ducts are major sources of airborne micro-organisms. Furthermore, effective treatment of those sources by use of disinfecting chemicals and routine cleaning can reduce the population of airborne colonies. Treatment of air ducts and filters can be demonstrated by quantitive measurement of the source and effectiveness of the treatments. This can be done by either sampling from the surface or measuring the effects within the free air.
Measurement and treatment of carpets and other surfaces may reduce illness in areas such as daycare centers, schools and nursing homes where contageous illnesses may be spread. Concerns over sick building syndrome create a demand for surveillance of closed buildings which lack fresh air input, including source identification, measurement and treatment.
Many prior art testing devices perform quantitative and qualitative analyses of contaminates in the ambient atmosphere. However, the test results have often been inconsistent. This is often due to the common assumption typically employed in testing gaseous volumes that germs or other contaminates collected by the testing devices are equally distributed in the atmosphere. In other words, this assumption has been proven to be invalid. Thus, a test of a small portion, as an example, a cubic meter of the gaseous medium such as the atmosphere in a large room for colony forming bacteria will not provide a basis for determining, with any degree of accuracy, the bacteria content of the entire room. It is thus apparent that testing devices should be designed to selectively and specifically test the air for contaminates in different areas of a given room so that the source of the contaminates can more easily be ascertained. A hand held portable device can offer a means to readily sample a cross section or average condition of a room or surface.